INTO THE UNKNOWN

7. ARE CONFRONTATIONS SWEET?

I’m extremely sorry for the late updates...

But now I’m here with the new part. And from here, the story is going to get more interesting. After all, the ‘Hitler’ and the ‘Disguised woman’ are coming face to face!!

Excuse the grammatical mistakes and spelling errors!!

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JEANETTE

Have you ever heard of someone digging his own grave and then waiting for the correct moment to get buried alive?

Well, mine is the same case. The moment I looked at the eyes of the Christian Regulus, I knew I had cleverly dug my own grave and that too with utmost perfection. The moment he disclosed about my disguise, my whole body went stiff with shock and whatever words were exchanged thereafter between the heads of the Regulus industry fell deaf to my ears. As we sat around the oval conference table, I could distinctly feel a hot stare at my back and somewhere, my heart too registered the owner of the heated stare but my mind was too reluctant to admit. Admit that I unconsciously gave a golden opportunity to the cold-eyed monster for ridiculing me.

The meeting went well quite unexpectedly and even though my insides were freaking out when I was told to explain the idea, I somehow managed to maintain a professional face. I just wanted to get out of the place and nothing else but curse my luck because just as well finished the necessary paperwork, the devil himself requested a personal meeting with me.

Shoot! Now that’s what I call self-murder!

Confusion and worry etched on Anna’s face and we both somehow excused ourselves from the group. No other place was safe other than the washroom and that’s why we both chose that place only. As soon as I entered the place, curses flew out of my mouth, taking Anna by surprise.

“Jean”, she called out my name with an amusing voice, “are you fine?”

“Do I freaking look like I’m fine Annaise?”, I practically growled at her in anger making her eyes twitch in amusement. “Calm down tigress and now tell me, what has got you so riled up?”, her voice calmed my raging mind somehow and I leaned back onto the slab, biting the insides of my mouth.

“He knows”

When there wasn’t a single change on her face, I sighed and continued, “Christian Regulus knows about my disguise. I don’t know whether he is aware of my true identity but back then when I slipped and he caught me, he whispered the words to me”.

If eyes could jump out of the eye-socket then it would have been now since the moment I stopped, Anna’s eyes were jumping out of their sockets. “What?”, she shrieked in horror, not caring about anyone around us.

“Sshhhh, keep it down. Will ya?”, I put my palm on her lips, tending to calm her down, “someone can hear us. So you better put it together”. Her eyes blinked repeatedly a few times before her body went limp and she relaxed under my hold. I slowly withdrew my hand from over her mouth and we both were simply looking at each other.

“How?”, this was the only word that she somehow managed to speak out. Wiping my face harshly, I went back to my previous position and leaned back, “I don’t know. I carefully made the cover so that no one could identify me but I don’t have any idea how he did”.

“What you will do now?”, her concern was clearly reflected in the way she was speaking and I mentally thanked her for doing that. In the midst of mayhem, I was starting to feel alone. But now, knowing that someone was still there, caring about me, I sighed in relief.

“I don’t know. Let’s see what he has stored in for me. But one thing is clear, this man is too dangerous. If he could identify my disguise, what will happen if he unravels my pas-“

“Jean”, Anna shook me slightly, breaking my trance and that’s when I realized I was again slipping into a panic attack, “nothing will happen like that you understand?”

I nodded my head, my heart still thumping loudly against my rib as we both took a moment of silence. Deciding it to be enough, I walked out of the washroom followed by her. And as expected the group was waiting for both of us. However, there was a stark difference; after all, the devil himself wasn’t there.

Did he forget about everything?

Just I was about to celebrate my victory, my entire happiness was crushed by Mr Scalzo. “Miss Aldaine, I hope everything is perfect. Sir would like to meet you in his cabin. Please take the elevator to the 59th floor. Its where his office is. In the meantime, Miss Raven”, he turned his attention towards Anna who was a bit flustered by all the focus centered on her, “will you come with me to discuss the further specifications of the deal?”

Though he posed his statement as a question, we all understood it was rather a direct order than a request and Anna couldn’t do anything other than to comply with it. Throwing a nervous glance towards me, she walked away from the place. “You aren’t going in Michael?”, I asked with a low voice, my mind already swirling with a thousand thoughts.

Instead of replying, he did something that I was least expecting. He hugged me!

I was too stunned to react. His sudden action caught me off-guard and my body went stiff as soon as he tightened his grip. “Michael”, I whispered his name in a strained voice, trying to calm down my rapid heartbeat. He seemed to get my point as the very next second he released me in a haste, stumbling a few steps back.

“I’m sorry Jean”, he rambled off quickly, trying to make me understand his cause of doing something, which he had never done. “I was just scared with all these things happening. I just remembered Sarah…..”, his voice trembled at the last name as suddenly pain overtook my senses as I too remembered the person.

“Take your time Michael. I know it’s hard to forget your sister but she wouldn’t like to see you like this. As far as I know, Sarah, she would always want you to move on”, I walked up to him and placed my hand on his shoulder, giving a light squeeze as a sign of encouragement. A small smile lit up his face as he gave me a small nod.

“Okay, now I have to go. Mr Regulus is waiting for me”, I said in a light voice, trying to come of the situation as soon as possible. He gave me a nod again in response and I let out a sigh. “You are going to be okay right?”, I asked him again, not believing his earlier responses. “I will be fine Jean. Go and take care. I’m not getting quite a good vibes from that person”, he said in a serious voice and I knew he was back.

Neither am I

I closed my eyes, took a deep breath, and then walked towards the elevator. It was only one floor and time flew by rapidly, without letting me take a notice of the outside. As I walked through the corridor of the 59th floor, I couldn’t help but marvel at the interiors. The work of the person was really commendable. I have never such a fine artwork, let alone have one for me.

As I neared the humongous wooden doors, my breathing sky-rocketed to its peak, making a drop of sweat trickle down my spine. Well, after all, I was all alone on this floor and was going to be alone with the giant Hitler behind these wooden doors. What could I do, except being nervous and a little bit of scared?

I knocked at the door, trying to behave as normal as possible. I waited for a few seconds but no sound came from the other side. Was he not there in the room? But how could that be possible? As my mind was busy in codifying different scenarios, suddenly something popped out in my mind, a though quite disturbing. It was sort of a predicament, one which I was unsure of!

He knew that I was in a disguise but does he knew about me being the girl from the café?

Three minutes and still no sound came from the other side. “Perhaps the CEO wasn’t there in his room and I was late”, I muttered to myself as I decided to retire back to where the rest of them were. But curse my luck, it was never with me!

Because just as I was about to turn and move away from the door, the door was opened and there he stood, the most arrogant of the century in all his infuriating glory. The suddenness of the action had me in a very awkward position, almost in a twisted way. My lower body was facing the elevator while my head was facing the wide, open doors.

And guess what?

That man had this innate courage in him to smirk arrogantly at the way of my posture, even when it was his fault. If he was inside the room, then he could just have told a “come in”. I didn’t know what took him so long to open the door but whatever engaged him, I was certain it was just to irritate me.

“Oh!”, he exclaimed in a dramatic way as I was having a hard time not to roll my eyes at him, “I see you are practicing gymnastics in the meantime. I hope I didn’t disturb your routine. Or did I?”

Seriously? After all the fiasco, this was what he wanted to talk about?

I hastily straightened my frame and took a stiff stance facing him. My eyes were cold and perhaps shooting millions of daggers at Mr Regulus. Clearing my throat, I asked him the question that I was dying to the answer of, “How did you know that I’m here in a disguise?”

He was silent for a moment, his eyes had turned hard and cold the moment I asked him the question. Without saying any further word, he went inside the room, silently ordering me to follow him. Well, I wanted my answers and this was the best opportunity to get to know what exactly this man was planning.

So without thinking any further, I walked inside the den, closing the door behind me. Christian Regulus was standing behind the large ebonite wooden desk, his frame facing the huge glass wall. His stance screamed authority and power, something I wasn’t expecting.

“Mr Regulus, you owe me an answer. As far as I have heard about you, you aren’t a person to let someone leave so easily who tries to bypass you. Though I did have my own personal reasons to be in a disguise, still what I did was against the decorum of a professional. And being such a prestigious CEO, why did you not tell anyone about me?”

I didn’t wait for him to say anything and threw questions at him. I was being desperate and I knew that. But this desperation had a reason. No one ever understood that the businessperson Jeanette Aldaine and the student Jeanette Aldaine are the same person. Then how did a man who never saw me except once, who never heard about me could differentiate between the real and the fake?

“Mr Regulus, I’m waiting-“

My words dried down in my throat as I came face to face with the businessman everyone feared. I might be a confident and bold person but the one standing in front of me was much more than what I was. He was more powerful than me, more sharp and cunning. His actions were always precise and he never did a thing without a reason. So what could be his reason behind his silence?

“First of all, when you standing in my office, you shouldn’t be the one questioning me. Especially not when you have committed a crime and I could put you in jail”, his words were calculated and venomous. I tried to shake off the feelings of hurt that welled up in my heart but his words and his expression cut through me like a sharp knife.

“So you want to know how did I identified you and why I didn’t tell anyone, right Miss Aldaine?”, his every statement was formed in a way where he could taunt me. I bit back the insides of my cheeks to prevent myself from retorting back. Slowly, I nodded my head as I fixed my gaze at his table.

No matter who he was or who I was, there was something in his eyes I couldn’t stand and so I lowered my lashes. “Well, for starters, no matter how much make-up you put on your face, I can never forget the girl who dared to glare at Christian Regulus. And for the next part, what fun it would be if I told others about your identity, isn’t it?”

My head shot up to look at him or rather at his indistinctive cunning smirk, I was correct, he was definitely up to something. “What do you mean?”, I asked in an uneasy voice, my palms already slippery due to the sweat. He let out a humorless chuckle as he walked in front of the table.

Crossing his hands over his chest, he leaned back on the edge of the desk, his eyes never leaving mine and the smirk never leaving his lips. “Tsk Tsk Tsk, the never-afraid woman is now fidgeting with her fingers”, his statement snapped my attention towards my hand and I was too shocked to even react.

I WAS ACTUALLY FIDGETING!!!

“Well, let’s make an agreement”, I looked up at him confusedly, “I meant to say that as you have violated the legal norms of a company and I’m sensing a potential threat to mine, I hope you won’t have any problem if I ask you to step back from this project. Now would you?”

My eyes went wide in horror as my mind slowly registered his words. I couldn’t step back from this project, it was my dream project. I was about to retort back when suddenly my phone flashed with Anna’s name. I knew I couldn’t take an excuse for the call. So without any option, I picked it up and held it to my ears.

“Jean, guess what”, her excited voice reached my ears, “they are going to let us handle the entire security system for one whole month. They will not interfere in our business and we will be working with the world’s top security company. Can you imagine?”

Her enthusiastic voice started to ring in my ears as my mind went back to the moments when I designed the model, staying awake for long nights. But I wasn’t the only one who sacrificed a lot of time behind this model. Annaise and Michael both were equally responsible for the success of the plan and because of my selfish reasons, I couldn’t snatch the right from them.

“Anna”, I whispered with a heavy tone, putting a stop to her banters immediately and before she could ask something, I replied, “I’ll meet you downstairs. Outside the building”. I didn’t let her complete the sentence as I disconnected the call and took a deep breath. Turning around, I saw him leaning back onto his desk with his eyes focused on me.

“Okay”, I said in a cold voice, even colder than what I expected it to be, “if that is what you want to not cancel this project, I’m okay with it. But I hope Mr Regulus, you will stick to your words and will allow my partners to carry on with the same. I’m counting on your words”.

Saying this, I was about to turn when his next sentence froze me at my spot, “I heard that you have a sum due of ten thousand dollars to some John Bentley and if you do not repay him within the next fifteen days, he will confiscate your office back in the city. Is it true Miss Aldaine?”

My head turned at his direction with a lightning speed as my eyes went wide. Only one question rang in my ears at that time.

How?

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Till then, goodbye and have a nice day!!